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New diesels and 'The Scorpio'
SOME READERS of this column might wonder why it has returned to the subject of diesel engines when it has appeared to take so strongly a pro-CNG stand recently, but it believes that CNG only has a complementary niche position to diesel and petrol. And that is stuff for another day...
Motoring Matters reported more than a year ago (in February 2001) that Hyundai was to launch a diesel version of the Accent with a common rail diesel engine. It now appears that it will arrive in India by the end of the year. VM Motori, a leading Italian engine manufacturer that supplies diesel engines around the world, developed this three-cylinder direct injection (DI) engine, along with a similar four-cylinder sibling, for Hyundai. Detroit Diesel of the U.S. acquired VM in 2000 and it, in turn, was acquired by Daimler Chrysler (Mercedes Benz) last year. The four-cylinder VM designed engine is available on the Hyundai Elantra, Trajet and Santa Fe while the three-cylinder version is also available in the Matrix mini van.
The relatively small, 1.5-litre displacement, engine in the new Accent develops over 80 bhp. Comparing that with the larger indirect injection (IDI) engines in the Ford Ikon (60 bhp from 1.8 litres), Mitsubishi Lancer (a smooth 65 bhp from 2 litres) and the Opel Astra (a sluggish 69 bhp even with a turbocharger) and one begins to appreciate the advantages of direct injection. Even more importantly, DI engines are extremely frugal while developing all this power, something long appreciated in the commercial world. The relative smoothness and lower price of IDI engines have, however, long delayed the introduction of DI in passenger cars. Precise high-pressure fuel injection has changed all that and added other benefits — particularly excellent driveability and low pollutant emission levels — making the new DI diesels comparable to the best passenger car petrol engines. No major manufacturer would dream of developing a new IDI engine today.
First to introduce a modern DI diesel to the Indian passenger car market was Mercedes with the superb 220 CDI in the E-Class followed by a deliberately detuned version of the same engine in the smaller C-Class. These four-cylinder engined cars were joined by the ML 270 sports utility vehicle (SUV) with a five-cylinder version of the same common rail engine. The equally good Skoda Octavia followed, but with a 1.9 litre engine using unit injectors rather than a common rail system. The attractive Ford Mondeo came soon thereafter with a 2 litre turbo diesel and Hyundai has now announced that it will introduce its large Terracan sports ute with a 2.5 litre, 98 bhp turbo diesel engine. The Terracan is about the same size as a Tata Safari, both being significantly larger than the Mercedes SUV.
It is, at this point, useful to delve a bit into the history of Indian diesel engines. Ashok Leyland, Telco and Bajaj Tempo have all improved their "inherited'' engines, but if one excludes the Swaraj tractor, no major engine development was attempted in the country until Telco's engineers attempted to go it alone in the 1980s, targeting an old Peugeot IDI design for reasons best known to themselves. The engine resulting from this programme powered the Tata 207, Sierra and Estate, but with little success. These failures were followed by the very successful Sumo using the same naturally aspirated (non-turbocharged) 68 bhp engine and the Safari with a turbocharged 90 bhp, 186 Newton metre variant. The bulky, but otherwise attractive, Safari is powerful on paper, but extremely sluggish at all except high speeds thanks to its poor low-end torque.
Well worth waiting for
Mahindra and Mahindra took an entirely different tack and commissioned the Austrian consultancy, AVL, to develop a fuel efficient DI derivative of their venerable 2.5 litre International Harvester agricultural tractor engine. AVL lived up to its reputation quickly delivering a superb, but low cost, design (replacing only the cylinder head and the rest of the combustion chamber) that nearly swept all its competitors off their feet. M & M went on to adapt this "under square'' (bore less than stroke) engine to some of their "Jeeps'' as well.
Realising the correctness of their strategy, M & M went back to AVL to help develop their new engine family based on a "square'' (bore equal to stroke) 2.6-litre configuration. In naturally aspirated form, the new engine found its first home last year in M&M's light commercial vehicles.
M & M has adapted this basic design to power their new medium-sized SUV, the `Scorpio.' With high-pressure direct injection, turbo charging and intercooling, the Scorpio has a powerful and flexible diesel version (presumably with at least 100 bhp and 200 Nm of torque available even at low speeds) that threatens to eclipse its Renault sourced petrol-engined cousin in terms of pure sportiness and driveability, while matching it for quietness and smoothness. That it will be much cheaper to run is just icing on the cake.
With prices expected to be in the Rs. 6 to 8 lakh range, very good fit and finish, the Scorpio can easily expect to dominate the SUV market much as M & M's 35 hp tractors have their field since the mid-1990s.
Henry Ford showed with his torquey Model T that size (or more precisely, engine displacement) matters. Telco must rue the day it chose to focus on a 2-litre design.
C. Manmohan Reddy
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